Tough new security rules will affect industry broadly
Regulation Watch
Dan Gottlieb, Washington Editor -- Purchasing, 10/16/2001 2:00:00 AM
Apart from acceleration of the economic downturn, U.S. industry is facing multiple impacts from the government’s new antiterrorism campaign. Some measures are likely to change the way industrial purchasing professionals work for the foreseeable future, according to trade association officials. Already, federal security measures are slowing air travel and shipments, tightening requirements for hazardous materials shipments, slowing some import clearances, and lowering the probability that wireless spectrum will be shifted from military to civilian use.
Although Federal agencies are working with affected industries to balance economic impacts and security needs, the emphasis is now on protection against a variety of possible terrorist tactics from germ warfare to cyber security attacks.
Air travel and cargo
The situation with air travel is changing rapidly, so the FAA recommends checking with carriers about schedules, destinations, and security measures in force. Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and the White House are reviewing recommendations from an air-security task force set up after the Sept. 11 attacks. Representatives for the aviation, travel, and lodging industries among others have urged the task force to weigh economics alongside security concerns.
The business travel community is arguing strenuously in favor of tighter air security rules. "Air travel is crucial to the way our nation does business," says executive director Marianne McInerney of the National Business Travel Association (NBTA), which represents corporate travel bureaus. "The government needs to nationalize, or significantly fund, the security systems in airports and airlines," McInerney adds, suggesting that the Aviation Trust Fund, which had income of close to $10 billion in 2001, should be used to ensure safety and security of the nation’s travelers. As a means to jump-start business and leisure travel, NBTA is urging Congress to provide a travel tax credit for the next six months and to raise the deduction for business meals from 50 to 100 percent.
Although air cargo carriers are back in operation, security measures for package shipments on passenger planes are still being developed. Relief to air cargo as well as passenger carriers is included in the air security legislation moving through Congress.
Shipper concerns
Vulnerability of companies that rely on just-in-time (JIT) deliveries has been heightened by the Sept. 11 attacks, according to Peter Gatti, vice president for international relations of the National Industrial Transportation League (NITL). JIT is a key component of the economy, he says, because "over the last 20 years manufacturing has been done without inventory storage, so assembly lines really depend on delivery of production and goods."
Biggest impact on shipments has been across the Canadian border, Gatti says, particularly for automobile parts. Customs clearing delays of up to 15 hours were reported in the week following the attacks. According to the Customs Bureau, wait times for trucks at the Canadian border have been reduced to a few hours at most. In addition to border delays, goods moving into U.S. ports are experiencing delays of several hours due to the U.S. Coast Guard checks of all vessels arriving and departing.
"At this juncture security is the paramount issue," Gatti says, noting that the task force on aviation security formed by Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta includes shipper community representation and their recommendations have been heard. "What we would like to strive for, obviously, is producing procedures that balance the need for security along with the commercial needs of the country," Gatti adds.
The Senate Commerce Committee is pushing a bill to beef up port security, but the job of recommending specific measures will probably be left to a congressionally mandated task force.
Hazmat shipments
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is contacting the nation’s hazardous materials carriers to convey recommendations for measures that go beyond existing regulations and are likely to cause increased paperwork and some delays for shippers. Among the measures being urged upon carriers:
• Screening of drivers for names linked to countries identified as supporting terrorist activities,
• Checking drivers’ U.S. citizenship and immigration papers,
• Performing credit checks to determine authenticity of shippers,
• Use of guards and controlling entry to areas with hazardous materials, and
• Use of alternate routes around high-population areas, avoiding downtown and/or metropolitan areas where possible.
Cyber security
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued an advisory to IT systems administrators on guarding against cyber attacks. The advisory issued by the FBI’s National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) warns of "an upswing in incidents as a result of the tragic events of September 11, 2001." The immediate concern expressed in the advisory is what the FBI terms "political hacktivism" by "self-described patriot hacks targeting groups perceived to be responsible for the terrorist attacks." NIPC has already received reports of individuals encouraging vigilante hacking activity, which the FBI describes as a felony. One form of such activity already noted is propagation and renaming of old viruses to make them appear related to recent events. In one such incident, an old virus was renamed wtc.txt.vbs in apparent reference to the World Trade Center attack.
NPIC recommends a number of measures IT systems administrators should take to limit potential damage from any cyber attacks, such as,
• Increase user awareness,
• Update anti-virus software,
• Stop hostile attachments at the e-mail server,
• Use ingress & egress filtering, and
• Establish policies and procedures for response and recovery.
As for overall security of the Internet, which is the backbone of e-commerce, the government has been studying the problem since well before the events of Sept. 11, but little action has been taken, according to experts in the field. Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America said last July that "Internet security measures must be addressed at the CEO and boardroom levels of every company and by political leadership at all levels."
Roy Maxion, director of the Dependable Systems Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, says that the air terror attacks were "a wake up call" for cyber security. "For ten years, " Maxion says, "we’ve been keenly aware of the (cyber terrorism) threat, and the only curious bit is why the nation doesn’t do something about it."
Maxion, who sits on the Defense Science Board, suggests that American culture runs contrary to disaster preparation. "It’s more in the corporate nature of America to say ‘Show me the return on investment and I’ll think about spending a dollar,’" he says.
Wireless spectrum
With the dramatic role that wireless communications played in the World Trade Center disaster, the debate over future reallocation of radio wave spectrum has pushed both national security and economic arguments to the fore. A major portion of spectrum sought for the next generation of commercial cellular service belongs to the Department of Defense (DOD). Before the attacks, DOD was resisting efforts by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to negotiate shifting military use to other parts of the spectrum in order to accommodate cellular industry growth. Now the Pentagon is expected to prevail, according to telecom sources.
Who to call with questions about security
Here are some contacts for receiving additional information about increased U.S. security measures:
• U.S. Customs Bureau: Go to http://www.customs.treas.gov for information such us updated border wait times, new locations for Customs business in New York and New Jersey, and information about traveling abroad.
• Airport security: Federal Aviation Administration (prefers to field queries by e-mail or fax). E-mail address is: 9-awa-tellfaa@faa.gov. Telephone: Mon-Fri, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. EDT is (866) 289-9673. Fax number is (202) 267-5091.
• Cyber security: Report computer intrusions to your local FBI office, at http://www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htma,
or NIPC at http://www.nipc.gov/incident/cirr.htm,
telephone (202) 323-3204 (-3205 or -3206),
or e-mail nipc.watch@fbi.gov.
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